Think Straight–Feel Great
A Critique and Rearranging of Choices of Successful Students (from Downing. On Course, 6E. 2011 Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning Inc.)
Recently, I was sitting at my desk in my office, and I glanced at a sheet posted on my bulletin board, viz., “Choices of Successful Students.”
It dawned on me, from a logical and epistemological analysis, that these 8 characteristics of successful students are out of order, and possibly could be confusing in terms of our human odyssey, and how the brain functions and how we learn. Downing’s listing–
- Accept personal responsibility
- Discover self-motivation
- Master self-management
- Employ interdependence
- Gain self-awareness
- Adopt life-long learning
- Develop emotional intelligence
- Believe in themselves
I would rearrange Downing’s list as follows: In parentheses, I have added the 8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom which co-mingle with Downing’s 8 Choices of Successful Students, and certainly the wisdom of the Greeks pre-dates Downing’s list:
- Gain self-awareness (Self-Knowledge)
- Develop emotional intelligence (Practice of Moderation)
- Discover self-motivation (Pursuit of Excellence)
- Believe in themselves (Individualism)
- Accept personal responsibility (Rationalism)
- Master self-management (Love of Freedom)
- Employ interdependence (Humanism)
- Adopt life-long learning (Restless Curiosity)
In addition, I would like to add 8 sequential choices of ethical decision making:
- – Becoming self-aware
- – Seeking ethical knowledge
- – Developing an ethical belief system
- – Practicing emotional discipline
- – Consciously exercising free will
- – Demonstrating more courage and personal responsibility
- – Acting on your commitment
- – Living accordingly – “The time is always right to do what is right” (Martin Luther King Jr.)